Silas John - Week 19

Our week was much smoother than last week.  I realized a couple of things in the course of the week.  The first is that Silas needs longer wake-time (the time between naps).  We've bumped him up to 1 1/2 hours between most of his naps.  This led to him napping longer too.  The second thing I learned was that Silas wasn't waking from naps because he was hungry, he was waking because he had too short of wake-time.  No wonder he acted so frustrated when I kept trying and trying to get him to take full feedings.  In actuality, he wasn't hungry enough for a full feeding!  He's now doing much better eating, and it's so fun to have him awake longer. Because, really, who can get enough of this face:

Our big news this week is that Silas ROLLED OVER onto his tummy!  Amos started by rolling onto his back, so I fully expected Silas to do the same.  To my delight, he learned his tummy first.  He still hasn't rolled onto his back yet, but I'm OK with that not happening anytime soon.  I dread the sleep disruptions that will be caused by that skill.

I thought that he was just going to be content to lay on his back and watch the world pass by him.  He changed my thinking this week.  He was pushing out of his bouncer, dancing in his exesaucer, rolling over, and wanting to sit on his own.  He's figuring out how to make his body work for him instead of against him by hitting himself in the face.

With this nice weather, he spent some time outside this week and doesn't appear to have the aversion to the sun that Amos had for the first half of his life (he's completely over it now).  And he sure makes a cute Teddy Bear.

SCHEDULE: I'm been meaning to put this on here for my sake, but keep forgetting.
7:00 -- wake up feeding
8:05 -- nap
10:30 -- feed
11:45 -- nap
1:30 -- feed
3:00 -- nap
4:30 -- feed
6:00 -- nap
7:00 -- bedtime feeding
This definitely still fluctuates, but it's the goal.

And here's Amos at the same age:

Silas John - Week 18

We had a pretty "off" week.  We had some short naps, some long naps, some missed naps and even some early morning wake-ups.  His eating has also been sporadic.  Sometimes he acted like he was starving after two hours and other times he didn't want anything.  I went back and read about Amos when he was this age, and saw some of the same things.  When Amos was going through this, I kept trying to blame it on teething, but I've recently came across a book called "The Wonder Weeks" which explains that as babies are learning a "new" thing, they have a very fussy week (or weeks) while they figure it out.  This blog does a great job of explaining it if your interested.  But suffice it to say that Silas is in Wonder Week 19 which actually last from 14-22 weeks.  It may sound crazy to you, but looking back now, Amos went through this phase to a T.  At the end of the phase, they should be much better at grabbing toys, putting then in their mouths and sitting and responding to "Where's Daddy or Mommy."  I'm hoping we'll be coming out the other sound soon.  I'm learning that when everything seems "off" for no reason, its probably a Wonder Week.  We have 6 more to look forward to!

We still had fun despite the frustration.  Luckily, Silas' cranky wake time behavior just involves needing to change positions more often and a little more attention.  He's a pretty laid back dude.  We had Dad home on Tuesday due to some snow.  As I've already mentioned, Silas enjoyed watching the snow festivities from the window.

On Thursday, we had the play group over to our house and Priscilla and Silas spent some time chatting about being babies.  These two will be up and running around before we know it.

On Friday, Grandma and Grandpa and Granny came for a visit.  They couldn't believe how big he was getting.  While they were hear, Silas camped out in our closet in the pack and play.  Luckily he doesn't seem to mind where he's sleeping, as long as he is on his tummy.  We've dropped the swaddle at night now because I think he self-soothes better without it.  Grandma commented that she now knew what I meant when I said "crazy hair."  That's the best way to describe Silas' mop on top.  Grammie and Gramps and Uncle Jason and Aunt Audrey also came for a short visit on Saturday.  Audrey chose to enjoy Silas from afar after he spit up on her a few times.  My boys are spitters.

Silas' favorite thing this week was his hands or anything else he could get to his mouth.  And so it begins.

Here's Amos at the same age.